Do You Have to Surrender License Plates in Alabama?

In Alabama, you generally do have to surrender your license plates when you sell, junk, or stop using a vehicle and you aren’t transferring the plate to a replacement. The plate belongs to you, not the car, and leaving it tied to an active registration while the vehicle is gone sets off the state’s insurance-verification system. Take the plate to your county licensing official, and do it before you cancel your auto insurance.

Transfer First, Surrender If You Can’t

Before you turn a plate in, check whether you can move it to another vehicle. If you buy a replacement in the same license classification, your county licensing official can authorize a transfer for the rest of the registration year at no extra fee. If the new vehicle requires a higher classification, you surrender the old plate, pay the prorated difference, and receive the new plate. Moving down to a lower classification does not get you a refund of the difference.¹

Plates cannot be transferred between owners. If you sold a car, the buyer does not get your tag. If you bought a car with the seller’s plate still attached, you are the one responsible for removing it and returning it to the licensing official in your county of residence, unless the plate has already expired.¹

When Surrender Is Required

Surrender is the right move whenever a transfer is not available. The common situations:

You sold the vehicle and are not buying another. The plate is revoked and no registration-fee refund is issued.¹
You received a Mandatory Liability Insurance verification notice and cannot prove coverage. You have 30 days to surrender the plate or complete a registration revocation before suspension kicks in.²
The vehicle was junked, totaled, or permanently taken off the road.

Alabama Code Section 32-7A-27 directs the Department of Revenue to guide registrants on how to surrender plates when transferring them isn’t an option, and your county licensing office is where that happens.³

How to Surrender the Plate

Take the plate to the license plate issuing official in the county where you live. If the vehicle was registered to a business, go to the office in the county where the vehicle was used or operated.¹ Bring documentation that supports the reason you no longer have the vehicle: a bill of sale, a title transfer, salvage paperwork, or similar records.

If you’re responding to an MLI verification notice, the office will have you complete a Request for Registration Revocation form (MV32-7A-5). Doing this within 30 days of the notice prevents the suspension from being entered against your registration.²

Will You Get a Refund?

Almost always, no. Licensing officials are not authorized to refund the unexpired portion of your registration fees. One narrow exception: if you registered or renewed during your assigned renewal month and then lost the vehicle during that same month, you can request a refund of the fees you just paid, because the new registration year had not yet started.⁴ Outside that window, plan on nothing coming back.

Don’t Cancel Insurance Before You Surrender

This is where people get caught. Alabama requires liability insurance on every registered motor vehicle, and the MLI system actively looks for registered plates that no longer have verifiable coverage.⁵ If the plate is still in your name and the system can’t confirm insurance, you’ll get a verification notice.

Once that notice goes out, you have 30 days to prove coverage on the verification date, surrender the plate, or complete the revocation form. Ignore it and your registration is suspended. Reinstatement costs $200 for a first offense and $400 for a second or subsequent offense, plus proof of current insurance. A second violation is also a Class B misdemeanor.⁶

If your vehicle was stored, inoperable, or otherwise unused on the verification date, you can claim that exemption once per registration period and ask the local licensing official to revoke the registration for the rest of the period without the reinstatement fee.⁷

The practical rule: surrender the plate first, cancel the insurance second. As long as the plate is registered in your name, the state expects coverage behind it.

If You Move Out of Alabama

Moving away and registering your vehicle in another state does not legally require you to return the Alabama plate. The Department of Revenue still recommends surrendering it to your county office before you cancel your Alabama insurance policy, so no verification problems follow you if you ever return and register another vehicle.⁸

Already moved and already received an MLI notice? You can respond through the Alabama MyDMV portal online. Upload documentation of your out-of-state registration or title and the department will process the revocation without an in-person visit.⁸

What Happens If You Skip It

Not surrendering a plate when you should sets off a predictable chain. The MLI system has no way of knowing you sold the car; it only knows a plate is registered to you and insurance cannot be verified. The verification notice arrives, and the 30-day clock is already running. Miss the deadline and the registration is suspended, costing $200 to reinstate on a first offense or $400 on later offenses, plus proof of coverage.² A second insurance violation within two registration years is a Class B misdemeanor.⁶

Handling the plate the day you part with the vehicle avoids the whole sequence. Pull it off, take it to the county office, keep the receipt, and only then cancel the insurance.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 40-12-260 – Transfer of License Plates; Registration Procedures; Receipts; Penalty
2
Alabama Department of Revenue. Am I Required to Surrender the License Plate Upon Revocation of the Registration?
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-7A-27 – Disposal of Unused and Surrendered License Plates
4
Alabama Administrative Code. Rule 810-5-1-.468 – Refunds of Motor Vehicle Registration Fees
5
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-7A-4 – Liability Insurance Required
6
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-7A-12 – Suspension of Registration
7
Alabama Department of Revenue. What Do I Do If I Did Not Have Insurance on the Verification Date?
8
Alabama Department of Revenue. If I Move Out of Alabama and Register My Vehicle in Another Jurisdiction, Am I Required to Return the License Plate to the State of Alabama?